Misc Hacks

4177 Articles

Twitter Brain Interface

April 20, 2009 by 36 Comments

nia

Just in time for the influx of sedentary Oprah viewers, [Adam Wilson] built a brain interface that allows you to post Twitter messages. The electrode cap monitors the user’s brain functions to determine where they’re looking. The display slowly flashes each letter in the alphabet. The user focuses on the letter they want and when it flashes the cap can pick up the resulting impulse. It’s a long process and the average user can only do ten characters a minute i.e. 14 minutes to use all 140 characters in a Twitter post. It’s interesting research and shows how far we still need to go with neural interfaces. The researchers note that Twitter’s forced brevity levels the playing field between locked-in patients and normal users. A video of the device in use is available on the NITRO blog.

Related: KanEye tracking system

[via @johl]

FIELD A Fluorescent Array, Wirelessly Powered

April 10, 2009 by 73 Comments

richard-boxs-light-field

What would you do if you were driving along the highway and you glanced into a field to see a giant array of fluorescent tubes lit wirelessly from the electromagnetic fields of power lines. Back in 2004, [Richard Box] set up this display after hearing about a friend playing “light saber” with fluorescent tubes under power lines. The tubes can be lit pretty easily by have a variation in voltage between the ends. By sticking one end in the ground and the other up in the air, he’s harnessing the strong magnetic field from the power lines. Though some thought the display was made to bring people’s attention to possible hazards of living near the lines, [Box] states that he did it just because it looked cool.

[via io9]

Hacked Instruments Compete

March 23, 2009 by 5 Comments

motorcyclekeyboard

The first annual Guthman Musical Instrument Competition proved to be a very interesting place to be as hacked musical instruments competed for $10,000 in prizes. 60 people applied and 25 were chosen to show off their hacked together, strange, and whimsical instruments. There were all kinds of creations, from keyboard controlled motor cycle engines to tongue controlled synthesizers. We can’t imagine trying to pick some kind of a winner from the bunch this diverse.

Airsoft Hacking

March 20, 2009 by 33 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnUufutxAzQ]

[Barrett] sent in this hack he did to an airsoft pistol. He was using “tracer rounds” or glowing airsoft pellets and found that there was no commercially available way of charging them up with uv light before they are shot. He cracked open his pistol, removed the safety mechanism, and placed a UV led in it’s place. Now, when he turns it on, it charges up the pellets so they’re nice and bright. If he’s playing airsoft at night, won’t that bright purple light give away his position? yeah, we know he was probably just using that pistol to show the mod off.

Building The Shmooball Cannon

March 10, 2009 by 4 Comments

shmoo

We’ve been eagerly anticipating this, [Larry] has published the entire build of the Shmooball gun for 2009. This design is more compact and elegant than the one for 2008 and has a slightly more Ghost Buster’s aesthetic about it.  The pictures are great and there’s lots of good tips along the way. We can’t wait to see what they make next year. How about a gattling version?

Model Rocket GPS And Data Logger

March 8, 2009 by 23 Comments

datalogger

Serious rocket hobbyists aren’t content with merely launching their rockets into the air. [wwgd] wants to have an on board computer to control his flights and log the data.  He doesn’t quite know how to do it all yet, so he’s starting with the basics. He has built the basic GPS data logger using an accelerometer, a GPS unit, and a BS2P microcontroller. The overall weight is 62 grams and it can record for the whole 5 minute flight. At roughly $200 though, we’d be thinking twice before launching it into the stratosphere.